In World War II, a brilliant computer scientist named Alan Turing broke the Nazi's encryption system known as "Enigma". His work helped win the war for the Allies, but his legacy extends far beyond it
I would like to acknowledge the Polish mathematicians who first broke the Enigma codes.
"Thanks to the efforts of the Cypher Bureau, the Polish knew 95% of the Germans’ order of battle before the invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939."
"With the storm clouds rapidly gathering, it became obvious to the bureau that a decision needed to be taken before their country was invaded and its work discovered. It was decided that the bureau’s work, its replica Enigmas and its bombes should be passed on to the British and the French. A meeting was arranged in the Kabaty woods outside of Warsaw on the 26th of July 1939. There, Cypher Bureau chiefs Gwido Langer, Maksymilian Ciężki and Rejewski and his team handed over everything the bureau had on their work cracking the Enigma machine to French cypher chief Gustave Bertrand and his British counterpart, Alastair Denniston. Denniston and the head British cryptanalyst, Dilly Knox, were stunned when they discovered just how advanced Polish codebreaking was. So far, the British had relied on linguists to try to crack Enigma messages. The Poles had proven that the key to cracking the code lay not in linguistics but mathematics."
Today there is a plaque at Bletchley Park which acknowledges the work of the Polish men. I first became aware of the astonishing work of this group of Polish mathematicians on a visit to the Polish city of Poznan, a few years ago.
May 19, 2022·edited May 19, 2022Liked by CognitiveCarbon
Have been thinking about this area a lot recently. I began wondering whether there was a difference between something that was merely unknown, and something that was unknowable?
In his 1950 paper, “COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE”, Turing describes the Laplace Demon with reference to digital computers. The point being, if the state of universe is known (or perhaps in principle knowable), and everything is working according to rigorous mechanical laws, then we have no free-will. Computers, with finite discrete states, are in principle knowable, and the results of their calculations (saying running an NN) are knowable in advance (by a faster computer).
In the real world, however, we are granted “adequate determinism” only, as chaos theory and QM ensure that we always surrounded by unknowability (my spell checker didn’t know that word for example).
You say that, according to thermodynamics, the amount of entropy in the universe is always increasing. If you don’t know already, you might be interested to check out of the work of David Layzer (circa 1975), who showed that the amount of “information” in the universe is also increasing, despite the increase in entropy. This in itself should be the final nail in coffin of determinism. But more importantly, where is this “information” coming from?
I’m not sure about this “singularity” thing. It’s talked about as if it’s an established fact, but has never been observed in nature. I’m kinda of the view that if it were going to happen, some other civilisation would have unleashed it on us by now. The universe seems to go to lengths to deny us full knowability and omniscience (instead we get free-will). Perhaps it also guards against other things too — for example, space is expanding such that we could never reach distant galaxies even if we set out today at the speed of light. Therefore, some “machine singularity” in a distant galaxy may never reach us, even it wanted to. It will just have to shake it’s digital fist at God!
Personally, I just want a cleaning robot, that has free-will, enjoys its task, and is glad to see me when I come home. I have a feeling that such a thing must also be capable of suffering if it is be conscious in any meaningful way. No doubt I would cry over it if it ever broke down.
However, I can’t see any corporation intentionally building a “machine” with the free-will any time soon. Rather, they would prefer to lock into a digital Metaverse in order that we be sucked dry of information generating ability.
Purpose. Stones of Significance...
Mmm... there is only One, taking on infinite relating forms, in the one present moment, forever. The rest are stories.
Thank you for a most interesting article.
I would like to acknowledge the Polish mathematicians who first broke the Enigma codes.
"Thanks to the efforts of the Cypher Bureau, the Polish knew 95% of the Germans’ order of battle before the invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939."
"With the storm clouds rapidly gathering, it became obvious to the bureau that a decision needed to be taken before their country was invaded and its work discovered. It was decided that the bureau’s work, its replica Enigmas and its bombes should be passed on to the British and the French. A meeting was arranged in the Kabaty woods outside of Warsaw on the 26th of July 1939. There, Cypher Bureau chiefs Gwido Langer, Maksymilian Ciężki and Rejewski and his team handed over everything the bureau had on their work cracking the Enigma machine to French cypher chief Gustave Bertrand and his British counterpart, Alastair Denniston. Denniston and the head British cryptanalyst, Dilly Knox, were stunned when they discovered just how advanced Polish codebreaking was. So far, the British had relied on linguists to try to crack Enigma messages. The Poles had proven that the key to cracking the code lay not in linguistics but mathematics."
Today there is a plaque at Bletchley Park which acknowledges the work of the Polish men. I first became aware of the astonishing work of this group of Polish mathematicians on a visit to the Polish city of Poznan, a few years ago.
https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-polish-cryptographers-who-cracked-the-enigma-code
Have been thinking about this area a lot recently. I began wondering whether there was a difference between something that was merely unknown, and something that was unknowable?
In his 1950 paper, “COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE”, Turing describes the Laplace Demon with reference to digital computers. The point being, if the state of universe is known (or perhaps in principle knowable), and everything is working according to rigorous mechanical laws, then we have no free-will. Computers, with finite discrete states, are in principle knowable, and the results of their calculations (saying running an NN) are knowable in advance (by a faster computer).
In the real world, however, we are granted “adequate determinism” only, as chaos theory and QM ensure that we always surrounded by unknowability (my spell checker didn’t know that word for example).
You say that, according to thermodynamics, the amount of entropy in the universe is always increasing. If you don’t know already, you might be interested to check out of the work of David Layzer (circa 1975), who showed that the amount of “information” in the universe is also increasing, despite the increase in entropy. This in itself should be the final nail in coffin of determinism. But more importantly, where is this “information” coming from?
I’m not sure about this “singularity” thing. It’s talked about as if it’s an established fact, but has never been observed in nature. I’m kinda of the view that if it were going to happen, some other civilisation would have unleashed it on us by now. The universe seems to go to lengths to deny us full knowability and omniscience (instead we get free-will). Perhaps it also guards against other things too — for example, space is expanding such that we could never reach distant galaxies even if we set out today at the speed of light. Therefore, some “machine singularity” in a distant galaxy may never reach us, even it wanted to. It will just have to shake it’s digital fist at God!
Personally, I just want a cleaning robot, that has free-will, enjoys its task, and is glad to see me when I come home. I have a feeling that such a thing must also be capable of suffering if it is be conscious in any meaningful way. No doubt I would cry over it if it ever broke down.
However, I can’t see any corporation intentionally building a “machine” with the free-will any time soon. Rather, they would prefer to lock into a digital Metaverse in order that we be sucked dry of information generating ability.
Great piece. We are on similar lines!